Versace mansion sold; Eminem’s home now up for auction

The news is just in that a Florida business connected to Jordache Enterprises, famous for its upscale blue jeans, bought the famed South Beach mansion that was home to designer Gianni Versace at auction yesterday, with a winning bid of $41.5 million. The company plans to continue operating the 23,462 square foot home located on Miami Beach’s South Beach as a hotel. They currently own several other Miami area hotels including the next door Hotel Victor.
And now this:The Associated Press is reporting that the childhood home of rapper Eminem has gone up for auction in Detroit.

The Detroit News reports Wednesday that the small house is listed on a state website. No price was given. Public records show the home was listed as the address of Eminem’s mother, Deborah Mathers, from 1989 to 2003. The newspaper says a past owner listed it on eBay for $500,000 but received no bids. A real estate website shows it sold for $24,650 in 2007.

The home is listed by the Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority. The authority’s website says it acquires, assembles or disposes of public property to promote development and return unused land to productive use.

In 2002, another of the rapper’s homes did a brisk business on ebay, fetching more than $1,000,ooo in bids.

Back to Miami, for a minute: Gianni Versace bought the rundown Amsterdam Palace in 1992 for almost $10 million and then spent about $33 million to restore the mansion. Versace added a 6,100 square foot south wing, a gold-lined swimming pool with more than one million mosaic tiles, gold-plated bath fixtures, a mosaic-covered courtyard, frescoes on the home’s walls and ceilings and lots of fancy artwork and furnishings. Versace renamed the mansion Casa Casuarina, but died there in 1997 when he was shot by stalker Andrew Cunanan on the home’s front steps.

The mansion was built in 1930 by Alden Freeman who was an architect and philanthropist with connections to the Standard Oil fortune. He modeled the home after the Alcazar de Colon mansion in the Dominican Republic.
Casa Casuarina went on the market last year at $125 million, but could not find a buyer. It was eventually reduced to $75 million but still could not generate any interest and was sent to auction after lenders foreclosed on current owner.

Karen Croke is the editor of Living Here, an award-winning Sunday real estate section devoted to residents and their homes. In her spare time, Karen has painted every room in her 100 year old home and has plans to re-tile the bathroom. Someday. Follow her obsession with celebrity homes on twitter @LivingHereNY and the real estate blog, realestate.lohudblogs.com